The Good Soldier

by

Ford Madox Ford

Nancy Rufford is a young woman whom the Ashburnham’s practically raise. She is an innocent girl who, for most of the novel, is unaware of the actions of the adults around her. In particular, she is ignorant of the fact that Edward becomes romantically interested in her once she comes of age (she mistakes his flirtations for fatherly love). Eventually, Nancy learns the truth because Leonora begs her to act as Edward’s mistress. Not wanting to drive more of a wedge through the Ashburnham’s marriage, Nancy leaves them to live with her father in India. After Nancy learns of Edward’s suicide, she is wracked with guilt and eventually becomes catatonic.

Nancy Rufford Quotes in The Good Soldier

The The Good Soldier quotes below are all either spoken by Nancy Rufford or refer to Nancy Rufford. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Marriage and Infidelity Theme Icon
).
Part 3, Chapter 1 Quotes

I must have talked in an odd way, as people do who are recovering from an anaesthetic. It is as if one had a dual personality, the one I being entirely unconscious of the other. I had thought nothing; I had said such an extraordinary thing.

I don't know that analysis of my own psychology matters at all to this story. I should say that it didn't or, at any rate, that I had given enough of it. But that odd remark of mine had a strong influence upon what came after. I mean, that Leonora would probably never have spoken to me at all about Florence’s relations with Edward if I hadn’t said, two hours after my wife’s death:

“Now I can marry the girl.”

Related Characters: John Dowell (speaker), Florence Dowell, Nancy Rufford
Page Number: 74
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 4, Chapter 1 Quotes

I have told you, I think, that Edward spent a great deal of time, and about two hundred pounds for law fees on getting a poor girl, the daughter of one of his gardeners, acquitted of a charge of murdering her baby. That was positively the last act of Edward’s life. It came at a time when Nancy Rufford was on her way to India; when the most horrible gloom was over the household; when Edward himself was in an agony and behaving as prettily as he knew how. Yet even then Leonora made him a terrible scene about this expenditure of time and trouble. She sort of had the vague idea that what had passed with the girl and the rest of it ought to have taught Edward a lesson—the lesson of economy. She threatened to take his banking account away from him again. I guess that made him cut his throat.

Related Characters: John Dowell (speaker), Florence Dowell, Edward Ashburnham, Leonora Ashburnham, Nancy Rufford
Page Number: 139
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 4, Chapter 2 Quotes

“This is the most atrocious thing you have done in your atrocious life.” He never moved and he never looked at her. God knows what was in Leonora’s mind exactly.

I like to think that, uppermost in it was concern and horror at the thought of the poor girl’s going back to a father whose voice made her shriek in the night. And, indeed, that motive was very strong with Leonora. But I think there was also present the thought that she wanted to go on torturing Edward with the girl’s presence. She was, at that time, capable of that.

Related Characters: John Dowell (speaker), Leonora Ashburnham (speaker), Edward Ashburnham, Nancy Rufford
Page Number: 151
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 4, Chapter 3 Quotes

Yet there it was—in black and white. Mr. Brand drank; Mr. Brand had struck Mrs. Brand to the ground when he was drunk. Mr. Brand was adjudged, in two or three abrupt words, at the end of columns and columns of paper, to have been guilty of cruelty to his wife and to have committed adultery with Miss Lupton. The last words conveyed nothing to Nancy—nothing real, that is to say. She knew that one was commanded not to commit adultery—but why, she thought, should one? It was probably something like catching salmon out of season—a thing one did not do. She gathered it had something to do with kissing, or holding some one in your arms[.]

Related Characters: John Dowell (speaker), Nancy Rufford
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 156-157
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 4, Chapter 4 Quotes

“He is going to telephone to your mother,” Leonora said. “He will make it all right for her.” She got up and closed the door. She came back to the fire, and added bitterly: “He can always make it all right for everybody, except me—excepting me!”

Related Characters: Leonora Ashburnham (speaker), Edward Ashburnham, Nancy Rufford
Page Number: 165
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 4, Chapter 6 Quotes

When he saw that I did not intend to interfere with him his eyes became soft and almost affectionate. He remarked:

“So long, old man, I must have a bit of a rest, you know.”

I didn’t know what to say. I wanted to say, “God bless you,” for I also am a sentimentalist. But I thought that perhaps that would not be quite English good form, so I trotted off with the telegram to Leonora. She was quite pleased with it.

Related Characters: John Dowell (speaker), Edward Ashburnham (speaker), Florence Dowell, Leonora Ashburnham, Nancy Rufford
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 184
Explanation and Analysis:
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Nancy Rufford Quotes in The Good Soldier

The The Good Soldier quotes below are all either spoken by Nancy Rufford or refer to Nancy Rufford. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Marriage and Infidelity Theme Icon
).
Part 3, Chapter 1 Quotes

I must have talked in an odd way, as people do who are recovering from an anaesthetic. It is as if one had a dual personality, the one I being entirely unconscious of the other. I had thought nothing; I had said such an extraordinary thing.

I don't know that analysis of my own psychology matters at all to this story. I should say that it didn't or, at any rate, that I had given enough of it. But that odd remark of mine had a strong influence upon what came after. I mean, that Leonora would probably never have spoken to me at all about Florence’s relations with Edward if I hadn’t said, two hours after my wife’s death:

“Now I can marry the girl.”

Related Characters: John Dowell (speaker), Florence Dowell, Nancy Rufford
Page Number: 74
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 4, Chapter 1 Quotes

I have told you, I think, that Edward spent a great deal of time, and about two hundred pounds for law fees on getting a poor girl, the daughter of one of his gardeners, acquitted of a charge of murdering her baby. That was positively the last act of Edward’s life. It came at a time when Nancy Rufford was on her way to India; when the most horrible gloom was over the household; when Edward himself was in an agony and behaving as prettily as he knew how. Yet even then Leonora made him a terrible scene about this expenditure of time and trouble. She sort of had the vague idea that what had passed with the girl and the rest of it ought to have taught Edward a lesson—the lesson of economy. She threatened to take his banking account away from him again. I guess that made him cut his throat.

Related Characters: John Dowell (speaker), Florence Dowell, Edward Ashburnham, Leonora Ashburnham, Nancy Rufford
Page Number: 139
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 4, Chapter 2 Quotes

“This is the most atrocious thing you have done in your atrocious life.” He never moved and he never looked at her. God knows what was in Leonora’s mind exactly.

I like to think that, uppermost in it was concern and horror at the thought of the poor girl’s going back to a father whose voice made her shriek in the night. And, indeed, that motive was very strong with Leonora. But I think there was also present the thought that she wanted to go on torturing Edward with the girl’s presence. She was, at that time, capable of that.

Related Characters: John Dowell (speaker), Leonora Ashburnham (speaker), Edward Ashburnham, Nancy Rufford
Page Number: 151
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 4, Chapter 3 Quotes

Yet there it was—in black and white. Mr. Brand drank; Mr. Brand had struck Mrs. Brand to the ground when he was drunk. Mr. Brand was adjudged, in two or three abrupt words, at the end of columns and columns of paper, to have been guilty of cruelty to his wife and to have committed adultery with Miss Lupton. The last words conveyed nothing to Nancy—nothing real, that is to say. She knew that one was commanded not to commit adultery—but why, she thought, should one? It was probably something like catching salmon out of season—a thing one did not do. She gathered it had something to do with kissing, or holding some one in your arms[.]

Related Characters: John Dowell (speaker), Nancy Rufford
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 156-157
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 4, Chapter 4 Quotes

“He is going to telephone to your mother,” Leonora said. “He will make it all right for her.” She got up and closed the door. She came back to the fire, and added bitterly: “He can always make it all right for everybody, except me—excepting me!”

Related Characters: Leonora Ashburnham (speaker), Edward Ashburnham, Nancy Rufford
Page Number: 165
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 4, Chapter 6 Quotes

When he saw that I did not intend to interfere with him his eyes became soft and almost affectionate. He remarked:

“So long, old man, I must have a bit of a rest, you know.”

I didn’t know what to say. I wanted to say, “God bless you,” for I also am a sentimentalist. But I thought that perhaps that would not be quite English good form, so I trotted off with the telegram to Leonora. She was quite pleased with it.

Related Characters: John Dowell (speaker), Edward Ashburnham (speaker), Florence Dowell, Leonora Ashburnham, Nancy Rufford
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 184
Explanation and Analysis: